Chapter 26: Attack

Second day of the trip. 

There were many people who were on edge, and it was understandable. There had been an assassin in our ranks, so people became wary. 

But when the convoy was stopped a couple hours before noon in order to give everyone some down time, a meeting was called. 

Turns out, the assassin wasn’t someone of the Tavera Family. Apparently, all those of the Family were given a tattoo, and the assassin didn’t have one upon inspection of his corpse. 

Apparently, he had killed one of the people of the convoy and managed to board without raising suspicions. This was in part due to a mask he wore, one that was constructed to look just like the victim he replaced. 

Regardless, the assassin wasn’t a traitor, which eased most of the worries. 

However, as a precaution, the entire convoy went through a small inspection. 

There was a list of everyone on the convoy, along with the hired muscle like myself and Plex. And one by one, each member of the Family was called upon to inspect their tattoo. 

Every tattoo was placed on the center of the chest. The symbol was of two sabers crossed between each other, the blades pointing to either shoulder. Each blade also had two different inscriptions written on them, while the hilts bore red ruby charms. 

This tattoo was only given to members of the family who had sworn themselves after reaching a certain age and going through a trial by fire. And there was nobody besides Plex and I who wouldn’t have the tattoo. After all, this was a very sensitive mission. Nobody who wasn’t absolutely loyal or trustworthy to the family would be brought on this trip. 

So with the Captain, Plex and I watched as everyone on the convoy was inspected. 

Everyone passed with ease. Nobody who went up was nervous, because none of them were assassins or spies. 

However, when everyone had stepped up and gotten inspected, the inspector ran through his list and frowned. 

He walked up to the captain and reported. 

“Sir, there’s one person who didn’t show.”

“Is it the victim who the assassin impersonated?”

“No.”

“…”

The Captain went quiet and looked back toward the convoy. 

Then, he looked toward Plex. 

“Can you find him?”

“Sure thing, friend. Unless he already bailed.”

Plex smiled and suddenly disappeared. 

After that, the Captain and I waited. We saw the occasional door open on the vehicles, but otherwise, there were no sounds. 

After a mere minute, Plex reappeared in front of us, shrugging. 

“There’s nobody inside the convoy. So they either left last night or have stealth skills that surpass mine.”

“Let’s pray its not the latter.”

The Captain grumbled before turning back to the inspector and muttering some things. 

“Mark him as dead, and if anybody finds him, he’s to be arrested on sight.”

“Understood.”

“Then let’s get rolling.”

With that, the convoy resumed its journey. 

As we drove, I hung around inside one of the turrets. It was an enclosed extrusion on the top of the Hunker with a single narrow window that circled all the way around it, like a pillbox. This way, you could attack without worrying about getting hit. For the most part anyway. 

I was in there for several hours, half sleeping and half enjoying the sights of the landscapes that we passed by. Being able to see miles of untouched land was a rarity on Earth, especially in America. It was always either farmland, towns, or cities. So a genuine wilderness was new, not that I hadn’t at least been to some national parks. I even saw some new animals that wandered around the road. 

When the sun began to set though, Plex suddenly came to me with the day’s dinner. It was a large bowl of meatloaf and some weird veggies. 

“Eat up. The food is probably going to get worse as we go, so enjoy it while you can.”

“Right. Oh, since you’re here, let me ask you something.”

I spoke while dropping down from the turret, keeping Plex from leaving. 

I sat on a stair while taking a bite, as did he. 

“Yesterday, I was a bit on edge. And then an assassin popped out of nowhere. Now that he’s dead, I’m perfectly fine. Can you tell me what that’s all about?”

“Yea. That’s your attunement into Aura.”

He confirmed my guess as if it was obvious. 

“Being aware of Auras naturally reveals certain things about people, even if you don’t realize. This is what normal people call a gut feeling or their sixth sense. The people who have a really good gut feeling have a higher attunement into Aura than normal. But when you actually realize your Aura, that gut feeling gets far stronger and more accurate.”

“Okay. So were you feeling nervous?”

“Hah! That’s funny.”

Plex snickered at me and took a swig of alcohol. 

And on second thought, it really was a stupid question. I’ve never actually seen Plex nervous about anything. The only one he treated with seriousness was Apocryon, and that was for good reason. That psycho could hurt me just by looking at me. 

Thinking that far, something suddenly clicked. 

“Hey, during our delivery for Apocryon, when I had those visions and was hurt…”

“Yea, that was him fucking with your Aura. That man is feared for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is his attunement into Aura. Aura is a mysterious thing. It’s far rarer to tap into it than to be blessed with a Crest, and those who can get good with it are prodigies among those few. How he can do what he did, I have no idea. Its a field that nobody knows anything but the basics about.”

“I see…”

Plex’s words made me curious. On one hand, there was Apocryon who could induce hallucinations and nightmares by interacting with other people’s Auras. And on the other hand, there was Plex who could reign in and conceal his Aura. Along with invisibility, it made him virtually undetectable. You wouldn’t know he existed until he was right in front of you. 

Two totally different ways of wielding Aura, and both of them had great application. 

I surely had a lot to learn. 

And with that in mind, I turned back to Plex. 

“Hey, can you teach me to conceal my Aura like you do? While I was at the Magisterium, there was somebody who was able to predict my shots because of it. They said my Intent wasn’t concealed.”

“Heh, your Intent and Aura are two different things. Sure, your Intent spills out through your Aura, but concealing your intent is much easier than concealing your Aura.”

“And how’s it done?”

“…Fine, I guess I can dispense some wisdom to my protege.”

Plex took another sip and sat up a bit. 

“You can conceal your intent by controlling your thoughts. By doing something similar to emptying your mind, you can prevent others from predicting your next action. Basically, if you aren’t thinking about your next moves, then they have nothing to sense. That’s why Knights train their instincts, because if they move based on instinct instead of conscious thought, then they can’t be predicted.”

“Okay, and what about Aura?”

“That’s a whole different deal. Controlling your Aura isn’t simply taught, otherwise everyone would be controlling it like intent. Your Aura is your conscious thought and more. It can reveal your emotions, your character, the state of your body, even your memories. That’s why they say Aura is the bridge to the Soul.”

“Hmm…”

His explanations made me realize that Aura was far more complex than I thought. I had thought it was synonymous with Intent. 

But it also confused me. I thought back to the past days at the Magisterium. I had been writing formations in the air by infusing my Psyka into my Aura. This made my power appear externally, and the way to control my Aura better was to simply practice controlling my Aura with Psyka. 

And thinking about it, I realized it was incredibly simple. Psyka was the power of the mind, and Aura, while holding details about all aspects of your self, was mainly a reflection of the mind. 

The power of the mind controlling a reflection of itself. Psyka was the perfect tool to control Aura. 

Was this why I was able to get as far as I did despite being new to this whole thing? Then again, I didn’t think other summoners were doing as I was. Perhaps it was just my luck, having something as expensive as my coat to help me break through that barrier with force. 

Suddenly, I narrowed my eyes at Plex. 

“How did you learn to control Aura?”

“Me? Well, I had shown talent for it in the military, and they imparted some techniques to practice it. After that I was trained by someone and I learned Aura concealment.”

“So it can be taught! You just don’t want to actually teach me.”

“Hey, they were very complex techniques. Besides, you couldn’t even use the practice technique. It was tailored to using Vigor, not Psyka. If you want something for you, go ahead and ask Maxwell.”

“I already have a practice technique. That’s why I’m asking about learning to conceal it.”

Plex’s eyes turned a bit wide in surprise. Seeing a hint of skepticism though, I decided to prove it.

Concentrating, I managed to write a few segments of my practice formation, the lines appearing in the air with a glow. I had gotten better after practicing, but there was still a long ways to go. 

It was enough to prove my ability to Plex though. After gawking a bit, he scoffed. 

“You’re a little monster, huh?”

“I think this much talent is necessary in order to survive the Trenches.”

“A little narcissistic too.”

I smirked at his jab, earning a sigh. 

“Whatever. Look, I’m not gonna spend the next 5 years training you to conceal your Aura, but since we’re inside this damned hunk of metal and I’m bored shitless, I don’t mind throwing you a bone.”

“Thanks.”

“Just listen, and we’ll find out how good your talent really is.”

Plex leaned back into his seat, rummaging through his memories and lecturing in a way that seemed as if he was reciting lines from a book rather than from his personal experience. 

I didn’t mind much though, because anything that could give me hints was good enough. I was certain that being able to conceal my Aura would become an invaluable tool as a ranged fighter, even beyond other applications of Aura like what Apocryon showed me personally. 

Of course, Plex’s lecture wasn’t just a bunch of words that he spewed from that alcoholic mouth. He so generously showed off some spell formations, simultaneously warning me that they pretty much only worked for Knights as they were formed from Vigor, not Psyka. 

Not that I could immediately use them anyway. The formations were incredibly complex, yet I still managed to guess that they were similar to the practice formation that Maxwell gave me. 

I primarily listened to all the theory about concealing your Aura, how it involved not just a brutish method of containing it within your body, but obscuring it. Plex had long since mastered the method to obscure his Aura, and now, he was skilled in the art of truly erasing his Aura entirely, making is existence undetectable. 

Of course, he wasn’t the best. Apparently, compared to some people that he knew of, his skills were barely adequate. At the same time though, these people he compared himself to were also the best in their field, and one of them was a rather legendary assassin. They were people who couldn’t be found unless they wanted to be. 

Plex described the presence of that legendary assassin as fading. You could be looking right at them and your mind still wouldn’t be able to process that there was a person in front of you. He even spoke of another whose presence wasn’t fading, but so obscured that even a small glimpse at them would induce hallucinations and cause a small bout of hysteria and paranoia. Obscurity so great that it scrambled the minds of others, unable to be comprehended. 

In a tangent, he continued to explain that the ways to manipulate Aura, despite their rarity, were incredibly vast.

There was one point he eventually led me to though, and that was how you can only utilize one primary path of controlling your Aura. For example, Plex could conceal his Aura, but because he had practiced and mastered that method so much, he would never be able to learn how to induce mind damaging hallucinations like Apocryon did. 

You could basically only choose one ability, and so he urged me to deliberate carefully whether I wanted to learn concealment or not. Because at a certain point, it became a path of no return. 

Of course, I didn’t think I would regret learning concealment regardless of that fact. It was too useful, even if only people like Plex, who could make themselves invisible, could capitalize on the ability to its fullest.

From there on, he continued to lecture. The talk only lasted a couple of hours since Plex didn’t feel like continuing into the night. 

Eventually, the convoy settled for the night. The vehicles continued to roll, but all the bunks were filled as people retired. 

We couldn’t settle for long though. 

Only an hour after everyone had gone to sleep, I suddenly woke to an explosion. 

An alarm went off, and everyone threw themselves out of bed. 

“Enemy attack!”

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